Alld varsity student union polls pass off peacefully
ALLAHABAD : The student union poll of Allahabad University was held peacefully on Friday with 48.5% turnout, said the returning official.
“The entire polling process was held in a peaceful atmosphere. There were no reports of any untoward incident,” said returning officer Prof RK Upadhyaya.
He said post polling at 2pm, the sealed ballot boxes were taken to the central library amidst security where the counting started at around 7.30 pm.
Upadhyay said 48.5% overall polling was witnessed which included 55.3% by boys and 32.1 % by girls. Last year, the turnout was 45.5%. He said the administration had made foolproof security arrangement to ensure peaceful polls. Around 40 members of the proctorial board and university officials, 150 personnel of university’s own security team backed by cops as well as PAC men kept a strict vigil even as around 200 teachers and over 350 varsity employees remained on poll duty. For 19,031 eligible voters, including 13,454 boys and 5577 girls, polling started at 8am for which 44 polling booths were set up on the Women’s College campus and the Arts faculty.
Upadhyaya said the girls voted at 6 polling stations having 15 booths on the Women’s College campus while boys exercised their franchise at 14 polling stations having 29 booths in the Arts faculty campus.
Eager students queued outside the varsity gates located opposite the KPUC hostel almost an hour in advance. Slogans like ‘Bhaiya jeet ke ahinyee, Bhaiya laddo khilainhe’, ‘Bas ek vote tumhara hain, baki sab toh hamara hain’ and ‘Tum jativaad se todoge, hum rashtravaad se jodenge’ reverberated on the university road.